Giddy Over Our Secret for Mom

The finished product.

 It has been such fun to put together a 70th Birthday Surprise Scrapbook for my mom.

If you know her, you know she's very nosey observant. She is pretty hard to sneak something by.

I started a few weeks ago, sending emails to friends and family, asking for their help. I wanted as many people to participate as possible, to make the scrapbook extra special. I asked each person I got a hold of to do a scrapbook page or send a birthday card to me and I would attach it to paper and decorate it a bit.

There were LOTS of friends I didn't get in touch with. I should have started last August and I might have contacted all the people in Mom's life. 

There was a deadline. I set August 5th as the due date so I could get some of the pages together early (school starts the day after Mom's birthday).

I got a binder at Walmart, the 1" size, but had to go back in a few days and get a 1.5" binder instead. I could have probably used a 2" one, actually.

The pages started coming in from friends, as I knew they would. Everybody loves my mom.

My pages weren't quick in coming. I kept going back and forth to Walmart for more photos or paper. I made lots of trips to school, too, in order to cut things out on the paper cutter, etc. I spent lots of time filling in a little space here and adding a sticker there.

This page was from me. I mentioned our resemblance. I mentioned her courageous spirit. The bottom photo was with the ladies she received her radiation treatments from.

Another couple of my pages. The first was about meals. Oh can she cook. And the other was how much fun we have when we're together. The photo on the bottom right was a shopping trip we took on Black Friday.

Mine was written like a story with photographs, entitled "Who You Are to Me". Very sappy.

Parker's was about game playing. Vaughn's was about wavy meringue and chicken gravy.

Parker got creative with some old playing cards attached to his letter to his Meemaw. We've always played games together and that's a special memory of his.

Vaughn looked at his empty page for quite awhile. I thought he might not have anything good to say about my mom or something, then I realized he was putting together a little ditty in his head. He wrote the cutest poem about her meringue being wavy. The way he spelled meringue makes everyone who reads it laugh. That's Vaughn's style.

This was the beginning of Becky's family's section. She has scrapbooking skills.

Left: Katy and Cooper and Brannon; Right...more Brinlee memories.

Becky and her family supplied me with 11 cute pages of photos and sweet stories. It's hard not to get carried away when writing about Mom. One of Becky's stories was about Mom saying "Dog gone it luck" to her when she was sick or throwing up. Kerry called her (his love-name for her) "Sweaty Betty". Kory poked fun at her striped shorts in a picture from way back, but then commenced to write a tear-jerking note to her about all the simple things she's done for him in his life. Katy, Brannon and Cooper also wrote sweet messages to Mom and put together some neat photos from way-back.

Rusty brought a card with a sweet poem that he wrote inside. One part thanked her for her sweet tea and then he mentioned how he's glad she's cancer-free. Boy, aren't we all!

Dad sent a love message too. A little too lovey-dovey for me, actually. Embarrassed me.

Magnolia Jane's page, created especially for Meemaw.

I had the little grand girls fingerpaint for Mom a couple of weeks ago before they left for Arizona. Cora said some of the funniest things while sitting at the bar painting...all about how much she loves her Meemaw. Goo was a little less talkative, but managed a "Ta-dah" when finished and I knew that meant "Happy Birthday, Meemaw!"

Kerry Burrows & Family/Clevengers

Leanne Condray/Diane Lankford

Stacey Hamann

Marge and Carl

Dorothy & Tammy

Raynita Lee/Extra pages for photos

Friends wrote poems and stories with such touching little remembrances. Each one meant so much to all of us who got to share in the making and enjoying of this scrapbook.

Sorry if I didn't get a photo of your page on this entry, but I just ran out of time and space. I'm sure Mom will be glad to share her scrapbook with anyone who'd like to see it.

Mom has always been the scrapbooker for the family. She's provided us all with our own scrapbooks and continues to keep one for the grandkids and great-grandkids as they grow and change. This was a big project, but oh what a blessing it was to put it together and to watch her enjoy each photo and story.

She loved, loved, loved it.

Thanks to all those who participated in loving Mom.

Happy 70th Birthday on August 12th to the best Mom ever.